Dems Can't Tax Their Way Out of the Deficit

Based on IRS reports, The Daily Mail's Don Surber produces the numbers every conservative should be able to cite when President Obama calls for "revenue" (i.e., tax increases) on "the richest Americans."

A report from the Internal Revenue Service found that the rich — 8,274 people with incomes of $10 million per year or more — earned a total of $240 billion in 2009.

Even of you confiscated every dime they earned, you would barely have enough money to cover government spending for 24 days.

Of course, about a quarter of that money already goes to the federal government for federal income. So make that 18 days.

Another 227,000 people earned $1 million or more in 2009.

Millionaires averaged taxes of 24.4% of their income — up from 23.1% in 2008.

They, too, did not earn enough money to come anywhere close to covering the annual deficits that are $1.5 trillion a year.

Got that? Tax increases won't solve the deficit problem -- in fact, they will only make it worse by stifling economic activity (that produces jobs) by the people best positioned to pour money into the economy.

Sobering thought for the day: What would happen if we DOUBLED everyone's federal income taxes? We'd still have a $400 billion deficit.

Carol Platt Liebau is an attorney, political commentator and guest radio talk show host based near New York. Learn more about her new book, "Prude: How the Sex-Obsessed Culture Hurts Young Women (and America, Too!)" here.